To expect more from the police?

[bonkerz]

Tonight my 7 year old son was pushed off his bike by a 14 year old boy. He then rode the bike away doing all sorts of tricks and stuff on it and when he eventually broke the handle bars and brakes he threw the bike in some bushes. The first i knew of this was when my son came running in hysterical from the front path. He had been riding out front and i had gone to say bye to a friend in the back garden!
DS pointed out the boy to me and i went over to the gang and asked who had done the damage. This boy stepped right up and admitted everything so i grabbed him and frog marched him back to my house.
After threatening him with the police he gave me his mums nuber and i rang her. She came over and told me to call the police. I did this and was told on dispatch to keep the boy and his mother at my house and an officer would be there ASAP.
2 hours later i decided i couldnt hold boy hostage anymore and mum left all details and they left.
I have just had an officer ring me to say someone cant get out till saturday!!!

Im in shock. The damage to my sons bike is minimal, handle bars bent, brake snapped and scratches but im sure it can be fixed to a ridable standard. I think im more upset that the police dont view criminal damage by a 14 year old to a 7 year olds property as a problem. This boy is going to now get away with what he has done. His mother by her own admission cant del with him hence her wanting me to ring police.

So am i being unreasonable to feel annoyed and upset at the police for not treating this seriously? At the moment the only person who is going to suffer is my son as we are not allowed to fix the bike until it has been seen and now im not sure he is safe playing out on a footpath directly infront of my house.

So you go to his house and collect him.

and apparently she cant afford to give him pocket money!

At which point though do i become the criminal? IF i go over and drag him here IYKWIm at which point am i violating his human rights etc!

if i force him to do anything even if his mum agrees i can be held for child abuse. The law and the system is all worng.

No, you are escorting him with the full consent of his mother.

She sounds like she couldn't give a toss and has just given up on him. Send him over here, I'll teach the little git!

Message withdrawn

i have started and deleted 3 emails so far! I have the email address for our chief community police officer who had contacted me 4 weeks ago about being coordinator for neighbourhood watch! They organised to come round and then never showed and no contact since. Want to email them but am very emotional! What shall i put without sounding like a deranged woman!

write as you did in your op. or send them this thread!

My sil is a police woman and she say's this sort of thing happens all the time She says it's not because the police think it's not worth the effort or because they don't care, she say's it is because they really don't have enough officers to send round. It's awful but you can't blame the police, blame the government for not giving the police enough funding for more police officers and for giving them so much red tape to deal with.

i know its the government in the long run that have caused this to happen. Im just angry at the system. I would have been happy with a phone call to the boy expoalkining that they will be round when ifo etc had been gathered but they have done nothing.
I have emailed our CPO with the OP and added that im dissappointed that out CPO are not available at all till saturday! I swear if i see one tomrrow walking around which i do occassionally i will go mental!

Sweetheart I really feel angry on your behalf. I can't help wondering what if it was my DS that got knocked off. Write to the Chief Superintendent and copy this to your MP. Explain everything in a straight forward manner. It maybe frustrating to the police officers too that they have to let the public down and now have to deal with 14 year olds that really in the past would have got a smack from someone in the neighbourhood or would have been in fear of the police being called and he and his mother would have made a mends some how. Sad state of affair.

I agree with Rhubarb.

The problem here is the system, yes but the MAIN problem is this boy's lack of parenting; that's why he's doing stuff like this in the first place. Someone who wants the police to deal with their son instead of doing it themselves, and someone who says "oh I don't think I could get him to go to your house to make amends" is chronically ineffectual as a parent and has given up.

The police and the system are only like little band aids covering a broken leg with this kind of issue.

And the trouble is, that's no help to you, I know. There's nothing you can do about her parenting, unfortunately. And the police can't bring that child up.

I really hope you can sort your ds' bike out so that he can get back on it asap, poor boy.

feck his "human sodding rights" - he abused your son, stole from him AND damaged the bike - criminal damage.... his is a criminal and therefore has no "right" to anything other than paying back something

can you collect him ? if he is only 2 streets away, why can't she just frog-march him there ?

my goodness, if my ds ever did something like that I'd CARRY him there !!

Have just had phone call from one of our CPOs. He was very apologetic about the situation and listened to everything that i said. He is going to try and sort someone to come out in AM but cant guarentee. We then started talking about what will happen to this boy and it appears only a caution! Can i really be bothered if he is going to get away with it? CPO also said there is a chance DS will have to be interviewed on video because the lad pushed DS. This scares me. Ds is on autistic spectrum and i dont wanna cause more stress. Im already concerned Ds wont be able to give clear statement after waiting 2 days to do so.

That's my point Bonkerz. Maybe this is something that needed to be dealt with at the family level; if only this woman was capable of DEALING with her son. It's horrible that YOUR ds should have to go through that stress just because of what happened.

i know what you mean. if my ds did this i would lock him up for months! its all wrong. I suppose i just have to see now if anyone turns up. Will not put my DS thorugh anymore though so if they wont accept mine and DH word about what happened (boy actually admitted it infront of DH) then im gonna tell them not to bother. I dont want to put DS through giving statement.

Horrible situation, you have my sympathy - my son is the one mentioned on the linked thread.

DH is a copper and finds it all very frustrating. Even though we were visited by a PCSO, we know there is very little that will happen (we know who the thief is, but not his name or where he lives).

write a letter to your local newspaper outlinging the incident and the polices response. My daughter and her partner were beaten up by a gang of young men - becasue they are lesbians. The police weren't interested. So my DD contacted the local paper, who got in touch with the police, who suddenly became interested.

had police visit last night from CPO i emailed. She took statement from me and went round. Turns out boy has previous so will be charged in court for this offence. Thankfully he admitted everything so hopefully i wont and ds wont need to go to court. CPO rang this morning and said when she got round there and was taking his statement he sounded so arrogant and full of attitude about it that she decided to arrest him!!!

there's a result! bet you feel better now

oh brilliant ... let's hope court acts as much as it can...